Levy Lee Simon

Return of the Revolutionaries by Levy Lee Simon
2 Women - 3 Men
It’s been ten years since well know revolutionary Mac Perkins went to exile as the result of a deal with the FBI, worked out through his friend and former comrade, CIA Agent Jack Armstrong. If Mac returns, he will put his life in danger as the government sees him as a threat. But Mac Perkins returns to challenge the present political turmoil in America. He surfaces at the home of Jack and Sherry Armstrong on the weekend that they are having house guest, young pastors, Jason and Priscilla Dawson, of the Age Baptist Church. Jack is not happy about Mac’s return because he knows Mac has put them all in danger. As the unexpected drama unfolds, Mac challenges the effectiveness of Christianity when it comes defending the Black race. While all of this is happening, the FBI is hot on the trail of Mac, and find him at the home of Jack and Sherry, creating a life and death situation for them all.

Is a play about fractured relationships and healing. Two couples one Black the other White are having major difficulties after 30 years of marriage. Charmaine has left Del behind years of existing in a non loving relationship. She is now with a female attorney named Misti, who is turning her on to a new life style. John and his wife appear be doing well on the surface but John's problem with ED, is causing him more problems then it is her, as he holds onto a deep dark secret, that will tear them apart. In the meantime best friend, Dean single, never married an old player is have difficulty with the changing world, which he cannot adjust to. "Me Too," and "Enough" challenging his very existence. He feels he is a dinosaur in this changing world. This flawed characters will have to come to change or they will be lost forever. The question is will they?

GENTRIFIED- Metaphor of the Drums- By Levy Lee Simon

Gentrified is a naturalistic play with a touch of magical realism set in contemporary, Harlem USA. The play explores the ramifications of the gentrification movement in New York and nationally, through a sexual relationship between an African American male and a White female, and what happens when their worlds come together.

Reggie Green is a life long Harlemite and Shannon Miller is a white woman who recently moved to the “New Harlem.” Their secret affair suddenly becomes problematic when Shannon turns up pregnant. The two must decide what to do next while contemplating the opinions of their close friends, all Black on one side and all white on the other. Cyrus, a childhood friend of Reggie’s, is an entrenched Harlemite and does not embrace the new Harlem. His actions and the consequences lead to major dramatic life and death concerns in the story. Mason the successful attorney, is Reggie’s other childhood friend. He wants nothing to do with new Harlem or old Harlem. He couldn’t wait to get out when he was young and is happy to now be living in Westchester, NY. Shannon’s, friend Amber, is married to a very successful CEO and is living a dream life, owners of a Harlem Brown Stone, but her dream life is shattered by the random violent actions of a Harlem resident. Grace, Shannon’s opinionated and politically charged friend has strong thoughts on Shannon’s pregnancy and the fact that the father is Black. Her insight on life are eye opening as she speaks her truth as a white woman living in today’s world. Issues of race, economic status, and political power, are explored. Along with the history of the iconic Harlem through the life of an old sage Mr. Jenkins, who the landlord is trying to move out after fifty-five years as a Harlem resident. His refusal to move creates a potentially explosive and volatile ending that can only be solved by powers greater than any we know. Those powers are called to earth by the drums.

Levy Lee Simon – Gentrified, Metaphor of the Drums.

Odyssey, Race and Racism is a solo performance piece written and performed by Levy Lee Simon. The play is an evening of story telling and poetic monologues about racism that has occurred in the life of Levy Lee Simon and his family going back into the Jim Crow South to present day.

Latanya Sullivan a black female writer shows up at the home of Fred Sullivan on his sprawling anti-bellum home. Through their discourse it is discovered that they are related, however the plot thickens when LaTanya demands reparations when a legacy of slaver owner meets descendants of their former slaves.

THE MAGNIFIECENT DUNBAR HOTEL By Levy Lee Simon

We want to take you on a journey, a ride, back to a time not too long gone, where the men were so dashing and the women were so fine, if you weren’t careful you might loose your mind. Come with us back to, the 30s and 40s on Central Avenue in LA, where jazz was the music of the day. Back to a time when men kept their hair cut and their shoes shined, and you could get a chicken sandwich for a dime. Sunshine and palm trees, cruising on Central Avenue with ease, where the Duke, the Count, Dorothy Dandridge and Lena Horne performed your favorite songs, and intellectuals debated the politics going on, and the average everyday folk felt right at home. Feel that LA night breeze, as the jazz music makes you tab your feet and grab your knees. Where was this place you might ask, this place to be, that had all that jazz! Well, do tell, do tell, ring the bell. Come with us back to the Magnificent Dunbar Hotel!!!!!!!!! It stood high and majestic on Central Avenue in the 30s and 40s, this place to be for the Black community. Entertainers, socialites, athletes, intellectuals, and everyday folk, made The Dunbar Hotel their home before she stood forgotten and all alone.

The Bow Wow Club Synopsis (Six men- Four Women)
The infamous, Bow Wow Club, from Harlem USA, is having a reunion. Fun loving, gregarious, Kirk Bright and his wife Dee invite the Bow Wow Club to their new home for a Fourth of July, 20 year reunion. Known in the neighborhood for their prowess with women, they achieved their reputation with girls as teenagers growing up in Harlem, NY during the late seventies. It’s twenty years later, and the five members of the group have not been in the same place at the same in that long. Kirk, who still lives in the past, thinks that the weekend will be filled with reminiscing about the good old days. What he has not contemplated is that they have all changed, including himself. Outspoken, volatile, Sal Anderson and his wife Bev, are still grieving the death of their son two years earlier to a policemen’s bullet. To further the pain only Kirk, attended the funeral. Alex Earle, the former fat kid, is a re-evented Afro-centric professor who attends the reunion with his white bohemian and very pregnant wife. The charismatic Lester McMichael is now a super star entertainer and flies in from France with his twenty - year old super model girlfriend, Loita. Chuck Hooter has not been seen in years, as his where about were unknown but secret is unveiled at the reunion. Discoveries and secrets about all their lives are brought to the surface as more than fire works explode, before these friends realize how much they still need each other for survival in today’s world.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

FOR THE LOVE OF FREEDOM, is an epic trilogy about Toussaint L’Overture, Jean Jacques Dessalines, and Henri Christophe. The plays depict the development of the Haitian Revolution in 1789, to the death of King Henri Christophe in 1820. The first play, Part One – “ Toussaint the Soul, Rise and Revolution” is devoted to the beginning of the Haitian Revolution and, Toussaint L’Overture. The second play, Part Two – “Dessalines the Heart, Blood and Liberation,” is about the liberation of Haiti and their fight with Napoleon, and the rule of Jean Jacques Dessalines. The third play, Part Three- “Christophe the Spirit, Passion and Glory,” is about the rise of Haiti to a world power under King Henri Christophe during the early 19th Century. Each parts is an individual play and can be presented separate from each other. However the hope is that the plays will be performed together, on successive nights, or weeks.

In condensing thirty-one years of history into what will eventually be a seven hours of theatre four female story tellers or, “Praise Singers” will advance the history when necessary using creative dialogue, poetry, song, and dance. To get the required effects needed for each scene, lighting, props, and costuming will be suffice. All set considerations should be minimal. Lighting will be used to create the desired effects for scenes, movement, and time changes. A scrim and projector may be used to inform the audience of time and place.

FOR THE LOVE OF FREEDOM, is historical. Most of the events of the play are recorded history. However the playwright has used dramatic license when needed to cover thirty years of history in a few hours. Some scenes have been condensed or re- arranged in order to portray the necessary dramatic information.

It should be noted that the, “Haitian Revolution” records a very turbulent and violent time in world history. It was the only time in world history that a group of people freed themselves from bondage by a violent struggle. It also depicts a moment in world history when racism and the result of racism, slavery, was at it’s most deplorable. In dramatizing this story it is the hope of the playwright to bring a new vision to the events, and historical figures of the time, many of who are not recognized in the cannon of world history to the magnitude they warrant.

This play under no circumstances intends to promote antagonism or ill feelings for one group of people to another. It is the hope of the playwright that in dramatizing these events an audience will leave with a better understanding of the world the way it was, in order to bring added clarity to the way we see the world today. Hopefully in exposing the truth, open dialogue and conversation may occur. This dialogue should enhance the ongoing process of healing between the races. It is the hope of the playwright that, FOR THE LOVE OF FREEEDOM, is informative and thought provoking, but most of all compelling and entertaining theatre.

Levy Lee Simon

GOD THE CRACKHOUSE AND THE DEVIL By Levy Lee Simon
God the Crackhouse in the Devil – Synopsis
Paul Anderson is a young successful African American man living what many would consider the American Dream, successful career, house, car, wife and two kids. However he is spiritually bankrupt. His marriage is failing and on the day that he isn’t given the promotion that he so strongly desires, leaves his Park Ave job and ventures up to Hunts Point Ave in the Bronx to escape his sheltered world and enter a world of sex, drugs and violence. During his twenty-four hour sojourn Paul meets, Lucy, Mimi, Gail and Sandra, four streetwalkers plying their trade while still searching to find their way. He meets Pope, Lonzo, Thomas the Mailman, and Phillip colorful characters who have there own need to be in the crack house at the gates of hell. He also meets the keepers of the gate, drug dealers, Hollis and Santana who are demonically deadly physically and figuratively. And then there is Liza, the wise sage, the born again prostitute who just might change Paul’s life forever. It is while there, among the drugs, prostitutes, drug dealers, stick up artists, hustlers and Liza that Paul finds himself or so we think. Liza is a heroin addict and long time resident of Hunts Point who runs the crack house were Paul ends up. She is a Christian and a Santeria who everyone believes has a direct connection to God. But how and why, are the questions that lead to a dramatic catharsis for Paul as Liza effects everyone that comes into her presence due to her strong faith and unwavering need to
save souls in a place many would call living hell.
Levy Lee Simon

The Last Revolutionary – by Levy Lee Simon
Synopsis
Mac Perkins a former member of th,e The Black Grenadiers Liberation Party is preparing for other former members of the organization to arrive at his home so they can reestablish themselves as a viable para-military organization with designs to protect President Obama and stop anti Obama sentiment and actions by racist groups of the far right. But, only one person shows up, Jack Armstrong, a former member and friend of Mac. The two men hash out political ideas and ideology as Jack attempts to make Mac see that his methods are archaic. However during the interchange of these two old friends whose lives have taken much different paths since the 1970s, secrets are exposed about both men personally and politically that lead to a life and death confrontation, creating an explosive and surprising ending.

SAME TRAIN Synopsis
Same Train
Written by Levy Lee Simon
Music and Lyrics by Mark Bruckner

Same Train is a theatrical collaboration between, director Mary Beth Easley, lyricist/composer Mark Bruckner and writer/performer, Levy Lee Simon. Conceived as a non-conventional theatrical production, Same Train fuses, original music, song, movement and storytelling to create a theatrical event unique unto itself. In telling seven different stories infused with elements of hip hop, be-bop, the blues, R&B, gospel and the spirit of jazz, the six poetic monologues come to life taking us on a ride with African American characters of the 20th Century and into today. Each story, separate unto themselves is performed by one actor (except Smoke and Ice) and is tied together by an ageless guitar playing blues man, old man Henry. Henry has his own tales to spin, and through his timeless connection to the music and the stories we come to understand that we are all on the Same Train, symbolic of, the Same Train of life.
It has been described as: a ground breaking event performed with virtuoso story telling – a splendid journey – thought provoking – revolutionary – a tour-de-force of artistic genius.

Play Synopsis

The Guest at Central Park West is a social political drama set in a New York City apartment with seven characters.

A dinner party is in progress when Terrence Barlow, a homeless drifter, shows up at the Central Park West apartment of African American Professor Charles Watts and his wife, Professor Nina Odood Watts. The dinner party in honor of Charles winning a Pulitzer Prize for his book “The Eyes of Peace”, and is attended by white professors Eric Engles and his wife, Professor Jennifer Engles, who are having marital problems. But the bigger issue is that Charles has received death threats because of the accusatory tone of his book and treating phones call are being made. When Terrence shows up only Charles Watts knows who he is, which causes the already nervous guest a bit of paranoia. Terrence Barlow has a brilliant, scintillating mind and had attended Harvard with Dr. Watts. He also has lived a life of danger and is now homeless. How he became homeless and why he is at the apartment of the Watts on this night becomes the mystery behind the drama in “The Guest at Central Park West.” The debates and tension are high and is only heightened at the arrival of Nina’s bi-racial daughter Lisa and her boyfriend, the white dread-locked thug rapper Seth. In the end, the “guest” Terrence has a lot to say about what will happen with their lives as this drama reaches life and death proportions and a surprise ending.